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Thread: Heater program

  1. #1
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    Heater program

    What I want is the heater to be off for 15 minutes when feeda is activated and also turn off for 35 minutes when feedb is activated. And of course to do the normal, on when temp hits 77.9 and off when it hits 79.1 Does this look right? And also to prevent probe issue from causing it to stick on then lower than 73 its off. Let me know if I did something silly here?



    Fallback OFF
    If DisTmp < 78.0 Then ON
    If DisTmp > 79.0 Then OFF
    If DisTmp < 73.0 Then OFF
    If FeedA 015 then off
    If feedB 035 then off


    And my second heater's prog looks like this. Idea is similar for this heater but for if the other heater isn't able to maintain the temp or temp drops too low this is the backup. I live in a cold env and want to have a secondary heater to takeover if the first cant keep up.

    Fallback OFF
    If DisTmp < 76.5 Then ON
    If DisTmp > 78.0 Then OFF
    If DisTmp < 72.0 Then OFF
    If FeedA 015 then off
    If FeedB 035 then off

  2. #2
    Frequent Visitor rkpetersen's Avatar
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    Instead of Fallback OFF, consider using Fallback ON and manually setting your heaters' integrated thermostats to just a degree or so above your desired tank temp that you're setting with Apex. That way were the Apex to fail and fallback, your heaters will keep the tank slightly warmer than usual (which can also suggest to you that there's a problem with Apex control), rather than letting the temp plummet with Fallback OFF.

    I'm not sure I understand your intent with the 'If DisTmp < 73 Then OFF' statement. Is that if the temp probe were to suddenly fail? Or is there some issue with the Apex temp probe that I'm not aware of? (Of all the Apex probes, the temp has been the most consistent and trustworthy in my setup). Although I suppose it could go out. In which case, the approach mentioned above, setting your heaters' internal thermostats just above your planned operating temperature, would also keep bad things from happening. In order to cook your fish, at least two different subsystems would have to fail at the same time. Not impossible, but much less likely.

    Regarding the Feed commands, those number are minutes in addition to your feed times. So the total time your heater would be off would be that number plus your feed cycle duration.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by rkpetersen View Post
    Instead of Fallback OFF, consider using Fallback ON and manually setting your heaters' integrated thermostats to just a degree or so above your desired tank temp that you're setting with Apex. That way were the Apex to fail and fallback, your heaters will keep the tank slightly warmer than usual (which can also suggest to you that there's a problem with Apex control), rather than letting the temp plummet with Fallback OFF.

    I'm not sure I understand your intent with the 'If DisTmp < 73 Then OFF' statement. Is that if the temp probe were to suddenly fail? Or is there some issue with the Apex temp probe that I'm not aware of? (Of all the Apex probes, the temp has been the most consistent and trustworthy in my setup). Although I suppose it could go out. In which case, the approach mentioned above, setting your heaters' internal thermostats just above your planned operating temperature, would also keep bad things from happening. In order to cook your fish, at least two different subsystems would have to fail at the same time. Not impossible, but much less likely.

    Regarding the Feed commands, those number are minutes in addition to your feed times. So the total time your heater would be off would be that number plus your feed cycle duration.
    So yes I actually picked that up from someone who recommended it for the lower than 73 off statement. Basically because if the temp probe is disconnected or fails it shows like 20 or something? I have my heaters thermostats set I think to like 80 or 81 somewhere around there so ya that should cover that. And that works with the feed commands. I may set the fallback to on for the heaters and I have email alerts for if temp goes too high so that will be sufficient. Thanks for the help.

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